The heart of Baldwin Hills was filled with music, hometown pride and campaign energy Saturday as a large and diverse crowd gathered at Mayor Karen Bass’ campaign headquarters near La Brea Avenue and Obama Boulevard to kick off her general election campaign.
Angelenos came from South Los Angeles, the Westside, the Valley, East Los Angeles and neighborhoods throughout the city to support Mayor Bass’ bid for four more years leading the nation’s second-largest city.
The enthusiastic crowd reflected the breadth of the coalition behind the mayor. Elected officials joined community advocates, small-business owners, labor leaders, faith leaders, young organizers and longtime Los Angeles residents for an afternoon focused on the progress made under Bass—and the work still ahead.
Congresswoman Sydney Kamlager-Dove and Los Angeles City Councilwoman Heather Hutt were among the featured speakers. Both emphasized a message that resonated throughout the event: Karen Bass is from Los Angeles, and she has spent her life fighting for Los Angeles.
Before becoming mayor, Bass served Angelenos on the front lines of health care and organized residents in South Los Angeles to confront poverty, crime, addiction and the systemic neglect of Black and Latino neighborhoods. Speakers said that history continues to shape how she leads City Hall—with urgency, compassion and a belief that government must deliver for the people who call Los Angeles home.
The mayor’s record on homelessness was a central focus of the kickoff. Bass declared a state of emergency on homelessness on her first day in office and moved quickly to bring people out of encampments and into housing. Since then, the city has addressed approximately 130 encampments and brought thousands of unhoused Angelenos indoors.
Supporters also highlighted the administration’s work to make Los Angeles more affordable. That effort includes accelerating housing production, converting underused commercial properties into homes, expanding the locations where housing can be built and advancing significant new protections for renters.
Public safety was another major theme. Speakers pointed to Los Angeles’ historically low homicide levels, reductions in violent and gang-related crime and the creation of the Mayor’s Office of Community Safety. The office supports trained, unarmed responders and community-based programs because not every call for help requires an armed police response.
From restoring streetlights and repaving roads to improving emergency response and demanding greater accountability from law enforcement, the campaign presented Bass’ approach as one grounded in both immediate neighborhood needs and long-term reform.
At the same time, speakers were candid that the work is far from finished.
Leading a city as large and complex as Los Angeles means there will always be another block to clean, another family to house, another small business to support and another neighborhood waiting for its fair share. The campaign’s message Saturday was clear: Los Angeles is making progress, and now is not the time to turn back.
Bass finished first in the June primary and advanced to the November 3 general election. Campaign leaders told supporters that winning in November will require much more than favorable numbers, endorsements or fundraising. It will require volunteers knocking on doors, calling voters and sharing the administration’s record in every corner of Los Angeles.
The Baldwin Hills headquarters carries special significance. It stands in the same part of Los Angeles where Bass spent years organizing alongside residents—long before she held elected office.
That connection was made even more vivid Saturday with the unveiling of a new mural by Amore Fofanah, an accomplished young multimedia artist born and raised in South Central Los Angeles.
Fofanah, who has six years of artistic experience and is studying graphic design at California State University, Long Beach, created a work celebrating community, leadership and the spirit of Los Angeles. She is also a member of Youth4Bass, a coalition of young Angelenos organizing to re-elect Mayor Bass.
The mural’s unveiling became one of the afternoon’s most memorable moments—a celebration of a new generation using its creativity, talent and voice to shape the city’s future.
Youth4Bass members joined seasoned organizers and civic leaders at the kickoff, demonstrating that the campaign is bringing generations together. The mix of young volunteers, neighborhood veterans, union members and public officials gave the gathering the feeling of both a campaign rally and a South Los Angeles homecoming.
The message to voters was direct: Los Angeles is finally moving in the right direction, but progress is not permanent.
The campaign urged Angelenos not to hand the city’s future back to endless studies, reports and empty promises. Instead, supporters called on voters to choose the leader who knows Los Angeles, shows up for its neighborhoods and believes no community—and no Angeleno—should be left behind.
The path to November now runs through the city’s neighborhoods, union halls, businesses, churches, campuses and community organizations. Saturday’s kickoff made clear that Mayor Bass intends to travel that path with a broad, energetic coalition determined to keep Los Angeles moving forward.
Mayor Karen Bass is the 43rd mayor of Los Angeles and first woman to be elected mayor. Bass previously served in the U.S. House of Representatives, the California State Assembly, where she was the first Black woman to serve as Speaker.
